My $.02 on the button...Fred Hemer said:you'll never have to buy that expencive set up if you do this!Ive had mine set up like this since before my controler failed and I hardly noticed my controler had failed except i intentionally pushed pushed the button one day after it was warmed up and found the glow light was still cycling on and off!
I actually wired my glow plug relay to a pushbutton a little over 2 years ago, now. My controller had failed and I figured replacing it was a waste of $$. I was always real careful about not holding the button down too long, but somehow managed to burn out the plugs anyways. My best guess on this is that someone else drove the truck (which happens from time to time), and didn't know that the pushbutton couldn't be held down for more than 8 seconds at a time.
I guess my point is, the pushbutton is NOT idiot-proof! If you know for a fact that no one other than you will be driving the truck, or that if anyone else who's going to drive it has the button procedure explained to them with a 2x4 then you'll be okay. But, after this last failure, I decided to go with the 7.3l system...while I know that some people on here in recent months have bad-mouthed the system, other people say that it's far more reliable than the 6.9l system and is as close to idiot-proof as it can get. The real key is keeping the connections clean.
I paid about $120 for the 7.3l controller, and I still need to buy the wiring to re-do my harness...but I don't think that'll cost more than $50 or so (making it myself). IMHO, for a system that's idiot-proof and reliable (not 100% reliable, though, but IMHO the pushbutton isn't either), it seems like a worthwhile investment.
Your mileage may vary, though...and who knows? Maybe I'll be changing my tune after I install the system and have problems with it.